Newsweek Looks At Daniels Presidential Bid

Newsweek's Andrew Romano takes a closer look at a potential presidential bid by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels in the struggling magazine's latest edition. The article is entitled the "Responsible Rider" in reference to his passion for riding his Harley Davidson motorcyle. Romano's take on Daniels is generally favorable, but it also takes a few digs at him that will please his critics. "Ever since telling The Washington Post in February that he 'would stay open to the idea' of challenging Barack Obama in 2012, he has had to insist, often several times a day, that he doesn’t actually intend to run," Romano observes. "His ambivalence seems genuine. 'You’ve seen my schedule,' he tells me later, in his broad Midwestern drawl,' Daniels told Romano. “I’m not going to Iowa; I’m not going to New Hampshire. I’m turning down every offer.”

Romano, of course, is quick to remind his readers why he visited Indiana this summer to take a closer look at Daniels if you have any doubts about his interest in running for president. "The governor’s press office had invited me on a daylong trip that was clearly designed to highlight the most flattering aspects of Daniels’s record," Romano writes. "Even through the promotional haze, I saw something valuable in the governor’s approach to politics. His brand of reality-based conservatism might not propel him to the presidency in 2012. But eventually it could provide the GOP with something it desperately needs (and currently lacks): a convincing model of post-Reagan, post-Dubya, post-Obama governance."

Romano has many positive things to say about Daniels like referring to his "record of competence and fiscal restraint" and how that represents "a refreshing change of pace from George W. Bush’s big-government conservatism." He also takes the obligatory swipes at Daniels small stature and unattractive looks. "If you’ve heard anything about Indiana’s very slight, very balding, very unimposing governor—and that’s a big if—it’s probably just the opposite: that he couldn’t possibly win the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and that even if he did, his chances of defeating Obama in the general election would be close to nil," Romano says of Daniels. He adds,  "At 5 feet 7 (in boots), Daniels is shorter than Obama’s 12-year-old daughter, Malia." "His rather uninspiring demeanor—reticent, stiff, and slightly skittish, with darting eyes and long blanks between words—better suits a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, which he happens to be, than a leader of the free world. And his comb-over is borderline delusional." Ouch.

Romano builds up Daniels' fiscal cred in his story for the most part. "Washington Republicans tend to talk about fiscal discipline when they’re out of power, then abandon it when they take over," Romano writes. "Daniels never stops pinching pennies. The political advantages of this approach are apparent the moment the governor strides into the Muncie convention center for a breakfast with local business leaders. Outside, it’s pouring rain; inside, the smiles couldn’t be sunnier." Romano doesn't fail to pick up, however, on Daniels greatest weaknesses on that front. "The governor’s corporate approach isn’t a cure-all," he says. "His 2007 decision to outsource the state’s welfare enrollment program to IBM for $1.3 billion and replace in-person facilities with call centers was a painful reminder of the limits of privatization; Hoosiers who missed welfare appointments because they were hospitalized with terminal cancer lost their Medicaid benefits. (To his credit, Daniels admitted his mistake, nixed the deal, and sued IBM.) Local reports allege that as many as 40 percent of the 100,000 new job commitments Daniels claims to have won since 2005 have yet to materialize, and at 10.2 percent, Indiana’s unemployment rate is still higher than the national average."

There's no mention of Daniels' drug-dealing days as a student back at Princeton. As I've written before, I think that will become Daniels Achilles' Heel in trying to win the Republican presidential nomination. Republicans don't overlook such transgressions as easily as Democrats do. While the media has largely overlooked his "youthful transgression" to date, I suspect his potential GOP opponents will not be as generous. Besides, the liberal news media wants to save that angle on Daniels for the general election if he makes it that far. I also think the fallout from the FSSA privatization deal has only just begun. I've tracked a number of hits on my previous post on that failed privatization deal to the Justice Department in Washington. Who knows what a good-ole fashion criminal investigation might turn up there.